Author @ Blaise Kielar

Blaise Kielar received Honorable Mention in the 2022 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize for an excerpt from his memoir in progress, "Be Heard: The Quiet Kid Who Started the World’s Loudest Violin Shop." He opened Chapel Hill’s first violin shop in 1978 and retired from a music retail career by transitioning Electric Violin Shop into the first worker-owned co-op music store in the United States. He plays jazz violin and clarinet in several bands and leads the Bulltown Strutters, Durham’s community New Orleans brass band.

Blaise Kielar writing

Legacy(s)

I was nominated for a national award by Project Equity, an organization that helps businesses transition to employee ownership. Their first-ever EO Inspiration Award is for business owners who converted to worker co-ops prior to 2020. It felt strange to receive this honor, because eight years seems like a couple lifetimes ago. I did not […]

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